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Grasp of the Tides and Moon
Even when faced with the madness of the Shadow and the enormity of the werewolf condition, there are plenty of Forsaken who refuse to let formerly rational worldviews entirely fall into shattered pieces. Modern scientific techniques are fused with shamanic practices and attempts to analyse and categorise the symbolic underpinnings of the spirit world. Urdaga researchers take cutting edge fields in bizarre new directions with the power of Essence and engineering combined. Of course, the hypotheses and findings of such scientific enquiries are a fragmented, incomplete patchwork of knowledge; even those phenomena that can be most easily studied are subject to innumerable different interpretations, theories and beliefs.

Several Forsaken researchers have painstakingly assembled some evidence indicating that Luna's influence on the Uratha may - may - have a surprisingly physical, Fleshly channel to it. The moon's greatest impact on the world, they say, is through its gravitic pull - most obviously the tides. These Forsaken posit that it is gravitic waves through which Luna interacts with the Uratha, especially during the First Change. The Warden Moon, rather than reaching across from the Shadow to wherever Uratha are in the Flesh, works in this hypothesis instead through using its Influences on the moon and its gravitic field, which then propagates out carrying the moon's power as a vector. In short, the spirit of the moon uses the actual moon as an emitter for its Influence.
There may be some truth to their claims. A werewolf who undergoes their First Change at sea, on the swell of tide pulled up by the moon's mass in the sky, sometimes experiences an unusual level of clarity during the nightmarish process. This clarity doesn't manifest as any particular control over the fleshwarping spasm that overruns their form, or over the Auspice-fuelled instincts that take over, but rather as an internal calm and contemplation within that is not broken or overrun by the horror that should be descending upon their thoughts. It's not a predictable or easily-instigated state, and plenty who Change on the waves experience nothing of the sort (or end up drowning after ripping through the vessel they're aboard, their experience thus never recorded), but it's notable enough that the Uratha of several coastal cultures would, historically, sometimes take nusuzul who they expected were about to Change out onto the open water in the hope of coaxing such inner harmony.

Obviously, the moon's gravity affects the world regardless of whether one is on sea or land; how and why it is the surging tides that brings this influence on the Change, rather than climbing a mountain to be that little bit closer to the moon, is not yet clear - if indeed there is truly any link at all. However, those who espouse the idea point to another and much more recent scrap of evidence in support of their claims.

Humans have largely been confined to the Earth's surface for most of recorded history. First Changes have occurred underground, in buildings, and other positions where the new werewolf is cut off from direct access to the moon's light or influence, but they have Changed nonetheless and with no meaningful difference from any other Uratha in the experience they have undergone. Only recently, though, have humans managed to venture into the skies to any significant height. Inevitably, albeit incredibly rarely, Changes have thus occurred tens of thousands of feet above the world.

These Changes are catastrophic - even the most robust aircraft is unlikely to be capable of resisting a raging Gauru tearing though its interior - and tend to result in the death of everyone apart from the werewolf but, ironically, the Uratha themselves survive more often than those Changed at sea. Tide-born are usually left adrift after the madness has subsided, and subjected to the same terrible hardships any human would be in those circumstances. 'Orbitals', as the sky-born are perhaps a little derisively termed, end up plummeting from a massive height to the Earth below but, unless severely injured during their rampage and the breakup of the craft, mere terminal velocity is unlikely to do more than slow them down a little. A Gauru smiting the ground like a furious meteor is sickening to observe, especially as the monstrosity just knits back together and continues on its interrupted rampage after a few moments of confusion and agony.

And there is something different about sky-born. Go high enough into the atmosphere, and the moon's influence appears to grip the Changing Uratha more strongly. The Change is more fluid, more chaotic, more uncontrolled, as if the Warden Moon's mercurial nature burns itself into the Essence channels of the werewolf to a greater extent than the Uratha of the world below. An Orbital doesn't lose this after the First Change - it stays with them forever. The flesh is always a little keener to flow and resculpt, and the mad whispers at the edge of the mind are just that little louder.
An Orbital treats their Harmony as one closer to 5 for the purposes of determining shapeshifting ability, and one closer to either 10 or 0, whichever is closer, for the purposes of determining Kuruth triggers. While at Harmony 5, an Orbital can sustain Gauru for one turn longer than normal, but still suffers from their Specific Kuruth trigger. At Harmony 0 or 10, an Orbital not only suffers all their Kuruth triggers, they suffer an additional Specific trigger from another set of Kuruth triggers.

Orbitals are fantastically rare, being purely a product of the modern world and the coincidences of a nusuzul being aloft at the precise moment they Change. Tide-born are less rare, especially in some traditional sea-going cultures that still have thriving sea and ocean fishery industries today; local Uratha traditions often assign them to shamanic and ritemaster roles out of a belief in their closer alignment to Luna, although this can chafe the tide-born who feel locked into such an act.

​As to the hypothesis of Luna's gravity, the jury's still out. That said, those tracing incidences of Changes under stronger tidal pull wonder if First Changes even further out will create Uratha with even less control over their form. Would a nusuzul​ astronaut hapless enough to touch the very surface of the moon devolve entirely into a thrashing mass of mercurial, formless flesh?

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Six Pups A-Changing
​As to the hypothesis of Luna's gravity, the jury's still out. That said, those tracing incidences of Changes under stronger tidal pull wonder if First Changes even further out will create Uratha with even less control over their form. Would a nusuzul​ astronaut hapless enough to touch the very surface of the moon devolve entirely into a thrashing mass of mercurial, formless flesh?

Yet one more reason we need a Werewolf book about space. This is an awesome example of how the Moon (not Luna) can change a campaign. Excellent work!